Page Image: 

Somber stuff here for those cold winter nights when you want to huddle around a fire with some wine and get introspective pondering nature or romance scenes from many 70’s movies. Midlake’s second album reprises the same elements that made their breakthrough so interesting: sad vocal melodies, harmonies straight from Fleetwood Mac or America, warm chiming acoustic guitars, and plenty of minor key melancholia. However, while this mixture is still fresh and well-delivered, The Courage of Others starts to sound a little one-note. The harmonies of Tim Smith and Eric Pulido are still beautiful mixed with folksy acoustics, flutes and a rhythm section that would make Mick Fleetwood and John McVie proud, but much of the material sounds like mere leftovers from The Trials of Van Occupanther. Some of the classic rock and psychedelic folk influences are sharper in songs like “Winter Dies” and “Children of the Grounds” (turning up the rock) and the themes of man changing nature hold up, so Midlake could totally define themselves as 70’s Californian folk/pop revivalists if they weren’t so weighted down. Overall though, The Courage of Others reinforces Midlake’s strengths and however melancholy they may be, this will be enough to survive the cold winter into thehopeful spring.